Necromancy Technqiues:

nec·ro·man·cyˈnɛkrəˌmænsi[nek-ruh-man-see]–noun1.a method of divination through alleged communication with the dead; black art.2.magic in general, esp. that practiced by a witch or sorcerer; sorcery; witchcraft; conjuration

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Description: Necromancy is the term used for all magic concerning the dead. The common folk mistakingly treats necromancy and their practisioners, necromancers, as people who only use the corpses or souls of the dead for their own evil purposes. However, necromancy is also everything concerning speaking with the death for helping the living, or using such souls to grant oneself knowledge from beyond the grave, for both evil and good purposes. Regardless of all of this, necromancy is always considered to be unethical, and if given half a chance the majority of normal people would put their practicioners to burn on the stake.

A natural gift for using necromancy is rare among the users of magic, and those without that gift often cannot use more than simple communication with the dead. More common is this gift bestowed upon those of the Ondode, supposedly since they themselves have a body born out of a corpse and a souls alike to those of the already deceased. However, even among those it is still quite rare.

The uses of necromancy are wide, often as helpful as they can be harmful; One could bind a soul to oneself to grant greater power, they could command corpses to do their bidding, bestowing curses of death upon their victims. The greater practicioners are even said to be capable of tricking death after their long exposure to it.

OOC information and requirements:- DM approval.- One cannot learn any sort of holy/divination spells after learning this. - One cannot learn to use summons after learning this.- One cannot get more than up to rank 2 is melee techniques after learning this. If one has already learned over rank two in a melee technique, that character can no longer learn this.

Spells:Necromancy is split up into 3 trees of root magic; Divination&conjuration, manipulation&transmutation and cursing&corrupting. Regardless of one's other focuses, you can learn up to forbidden magic in one tree, rank 4 in the second tree and rank 2 in the third tree.

Divination and conjuration is what focuses on the afterlive. It allows speaking to and summoning the souls of the recently (or long-term) deceased. It uses those for a variety of things, like letting those souls act as spies, granting them knowledge or power or even letting themselves get partially or completely possessed to grant further strength. The greater practicioners can even alter their own soul and those still inhabiting a body.

Manipulation and transmuting is what is seen as the 'common' necromancy. It focuses on working with already existing corpses and their parts, to form minions immune to anything that could kill a normal man. The practicioners of this tree are often surrounded by lesser minions, such as skeletons, zombies or even more horrendous figures such as bone or flesh golems. Greater practicioners can even manipulate their own body in such ways that they become more like corpses than breathing human beings.

Cursing and corrupting is something that would have given necromancy and even worse name. However, the effects of these type of spells can often not be led back to the one who cast it, because it was a slow-lasting effect or because these spells often do not require a verbal or somatic component more than what could be explained as a sneeze or scratching of the nose. One could let ones body start slowly rotting from the insides, cause a man to go senile early, make ones mind collapse by imprinting the image of death into it. It is even said that the greater plagues that ravage the land and kill thousands of people were caused by the practicioners of this 'art'.

Divination and conjuration:

Rank 0

Name: Mondelinge verbinding (Verbal connection)Rank: Rank 0Description: The basic technique to get onself started on working with souls. This requires one to draw a pentagram with anything touched by life (blood, sea salt, fat, etc). In the middle of that, one places a precious item of someone deceased no longer than 1 week ago, and by saying the incantation one can then speak with the soul of that recently deceased person, although no visible manifestation will form. Additionally, the soul is in no way obliged to answer the summoning, to answer a question, nor forced to speak the truth. Incantation: Zij, verlost van hun lichamelijk lijden, voor eeuwig vrijgezet and gebonden aan niets, kom naar mij en schenk mij uw luisterend oor en wijze woorden. (They, set free of their physical suffering, eternally released and bound to nothing, come to me and grant me thy listening ear and wise words.)DF Effect: None. RP only. If used on a PC who is killed, the PC will be informed all about the person trying to summon him before he decides to answer or not, although that information is lost once speaking to the person.

Manipulation and transmutation:

Rank 0

Name: Herrijzen der huisdieren (Critter's revival)Rank: Rank 0Description: Every skill in spells must be build up slowly, and this works for those interested in controlling the dead; A basic spell that simply resurrects a small creature, a thing like a mouse, rat, or perhaps a small cat. One takes the corpse of such a creature and, after removing the intestines, the caster infuses a small amount of magic into the corpse. He can then speak the incantation, and if spoken correctly, the corpse will rise and start decaying. It will then follow all orders blindly, although, being such a small critter, the things he can do would be limited.Incantation: Herrijs, oh triest slachtoffer van de natuur zijn brutaliteit. Ik schenk uw nieuw leven, een nieuwe kans, om door onze wereld te dwalen. Kom, sta op, en bedien mijn wenken. (Rise, oh woe victim of nature's brutality. I grant you new live, a new chance to dwell through our world. Come, arise, and serve my every whim.)DF Effect: Creates a small critter from the corpse used, which will follow every command within it's limit. Cannot be used in battle, nor can it be used for spotting things unless directly ordered to look out for something specific (AKA, it cannot follow a command like 'look out for humans', but giving it a description of a single person will work.)

Rank 1

Name: Herrijzen der geraamten (Bone's revival)Rank: Rank 1Description: Every necromancer needs some lackeys to do his dirty work, or to play meatshield during a battle. Now, while the 'meat' part isn't exactly applicable to this spell, it certainly does the trick; It takes the basic skeleton of a humanoid creature, the size ranging from halfling to half-orc, and, through the magic summoned by this spell, makes it a mindless minion who will follow every command. Now, while certainly useful for lesser jobs, they have no mind of their own so instructions would have to be very specific. And because it takes magic to make them move and to let them stick together, the cost for such minions is considerably quite high even for such a low ranking spell. Incantation: Herrijs, gij geraamte der mens. Sta weder op, verbind uzelf tot mij, schenk mij de kracht schuilend in uw botten. Ik, schenker der kansen, geef u de tweede, zo lang u mij dient tot uw limiet. (Arise, thy skeleton of men. Stand again, connect thyself to me, grant me the power slumbering in your bones. I, granter of chances, give you a second, as long as you serve me to your limit).DF Effect: Summons a skeleton that follows all orders exactly to the letter. This skeleton cannot show initiative, nor come up with tactics of any kind, it will simply follow all orders precisely as given. The skeleton has an upkeep cost of 2 MP per round in combat or 2 MP per hour outside of it. It has 10 HP, 2 DR versus all physical means and immunity to anything that would require a body and/or brain (bleeding, poison, disease, mind-affecting spells, etc). It deals 1d4+1 damage per hit and attacks with the summoner's highest mental stat. If the upkeep cost cannot be paid anymore, it is instantly destroyed.

Name: Rigor MortisRank: Rank 1Description: For those familiar with corpses, rigor mortis, the stiffening of the muscles after death, is the most common sight and sign of true death. After long and multiple times of exposure to such, one can even start to understand it and, using this spell, apply it to the living. It works via the principle of affecting the target's muscles in such a way that they'll actually act as if they were already dead, followed by overheating those exact muscles, causing the rigor mortis to kick in and make the target unable to move. However, those strong of health are capable of resisting this, simply by their body's instinctive knowledge of their own health, or when a pain courses through the affected muscles to remind them of their non-dead state.Incantation: Wees gezegend, ik breng u een voorproefje van uw opkomende lot. Omarm het, hou van het, want binnenkort zal het zo zijn. (Be blessed, I bring you a sample of your upcoming fate. Embrace it, love it, for soon it shall be like that.)DF Effect: Touch-affect spell, AKA it must be rolled with DEX or STR. Blockable (with a weapon, unarmed block is still affected)/dodgeable. If hit, the target is trapped in a full-body binding and must roll CON versus DC 17 (roll only) to break out of it. Lasts for two rounds or until hit.

Rank 2

Name: Herrijzen der lichamen (Body's revival)Rank: Rank 2Description: The more advanced and rather morbid minion technique, this causes an entire body to rise as a willing servant of the caster. It takes the requires amount of mana for the spell and morphs it around to make it resemble a sort of soul. This is used in the same manner as the spawning of Ondode, making the 'soul' inhabit the body, which makes it stop the decaying process and turn the body into a loyal servant. Much like the skeletons, it is not capable of understanding more than the instructions given to him, but unlike the skeleton this one is self-sufficient if it can take in a daily dose of humanoid meat, whether from the dead or the living.Incantation: Zij noemen het kwalijk, ik noem het nodig. Ze noemen het immoreel, ik noem het een kunst. Herrijs, mijn lievelijke dienaar, gij wordt nu een nieuw wezen, gezegend door mijn hand, luisterend naar enkel mijn lippen. (They call it foul, I call it necessary. They call it immoral, I call it art. Arise, my lovely minions, thy shall become a new creature, blessed by my hand, listening only to my lips.)DF Effect: Summons a 'corpsewalker' that follows all orders exactly to the letter. This corpsewalker cannot show initiative, nor come up with tactics of any kind, it will simply follow all orders precisely as given. The corpsewalker has an upkeep cost of 2 MP per round in combat or 2 MP per hour outside of it, unless it is fed humanoid flesh on a daily basis. In that case, there is no upkeep cost. It has 17 HP and immunity to anything that would require a working metabolism or brain (normal, non-magical poisons/diseases, mind-affecting spells, bleeding). It deals 1d4+2 damage per hit and attacks with the summoner's highest mental stat and on hit it has a 1 on 4 chance (roll 1d4, 4 is success) of inflicting the target with 'corpse fever', meaning they must roll CON versus DC 15 every round or take -2 to their rolls, excluding damage. If the upkeep cost cannot be paid anymore, it is instantly destroyed.

Name: Mimiek der doden - vals. (Dead's mimicry - False)Rank: Rank 2Description: Manipulation and transmutation is considered the necromancy branch of 'working with corpses', and as such, the masters of this will always, whether they like it or not, get obsessed with said bodies. This obsession usually leads on to a longing, a desire to rid themselves of their frail human bodies, to drown themselves in the power of corpses and the immunity that grants. This very spell is the first step down that road. It slows down the user's blood-flow but speeds up the creation of antibodies, giving a fake mimicry of the undead's immunity to diseases. It also slows down digestion and other processes, thus lowering the amount of oxygen required, all of it to create an imitated form of a corpse to their own body. Incantation: None. See dicefight effects. DF Effect: Takes half an hour of meditation before this can be started and lasts 6 hours, after which it can be immediately reactivated by paying the amount of mana required for the spell. The mana spend to cast and recast this is not restored during that time unless this spell is prematurely cancelled. Grants immunity to non-magical poisons/diseases, a +2 to checks versus magical/power-based poisons/diseases and -1 to all effects and damage from said poisons and diseases without a check. RP-wise, while under the effects of this spell, one requires only half as much food, water and air as usual.

Rank 3

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Rank 4

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Rank 5

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Rank Forbidden

Cursing and corrupting:

Rank 0

Name: Zenuwverpesting (Nerf corruption)Rank: Rank 0Description: The technique used to gain a feel of the corrupting possibilities of the darker side of necromancy. By simply staring directly into someone's eyes and saying the incantating word (whether loud or naught but a whisper), the target will start feeling a slight to medium amount of headache, dependant on the caster's wishes. This will continue to torment the target for only a limited amount of time, or until the caster cancels it prematurely. Incantation: Inzinking (breakdown)DF Effect: Highest mental stat versus the caster's highest mental stat. Failing to pass this roll will give the target a -1 to all rolls (excluding damage) for 1d4 rounds.